Medicare & Medicaid
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will not change its policy regarding the two-midnight inpatient rule but will allow greater flexibility for physician judgment in cases that do not meet the two-midnight benchmark, the federal agency announced Friday.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday released final rule governing how physicians are paid, raising the total payments under the physician fee schedule by 0.5 percent and setting guidelines for its new Physician Quality Reporting Schedule.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will pay for end-of-life services, bringing to a close a debate that started with false "death panel" claims during negotiations over the Affordable Care Act and is ending with coverage for families so they can discuss the care patients receive when they are dying.
Bill stops CMS from paying hospitals outpatient rates at newly-acquired off-site locations.
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott will plead guilty and pay $125 million after admitting to paying kickbacks to doctors and other healthcare professionals so they would prescribe drugs Actonel, Asacol, Atelvia, Doryx, Enablex, Estrace, Loestrin and others, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday lowered the amount it plans to cut payments to home health agencies to $260 million compared the $350 million it proposed earlier this year.
Dike Ajiri, chief executive officer at Chicago-based Mobile Doctors, recently plead guilty to charges that he fraudulently billed Medicare for in home-treatments that were longer than they actually were.
More than 1,800 hospitals will see payments from the federal government rise in 2016 due to improvements in quality under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services value-based purchasing program, CMS said Monday, with 600 more hospitals receiving increases than the prior year.
The medication therapy management model is being tested in five regions as an incentive to boost adherence for stand-alone Part D plans not connected with Medicare Advantage.
A key strategy for Medicare is encouraging doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to form accountable care organizations (ACOs) to coordinate beneficiaries' care and provide services more efficiently.